BRAINPORT

The 2017 Young Brainport Class of Excellence

30 maart 2017

On Monday the 13th of March, VanBerlo was happy to welcome the Young Brainport Class of Excellence, an Honours Programme being pioneered by Brainport Development. This class of twelve exquisite students (the absolute whizzkids of the Brainport region) visited VanBerlo for a day of Design thinking and doing!

In preparation for the workshop and to get the bright minds engaged for the day ahead, the class was asked to finish the following sentence: 'When I think about design, I think about…'. As it turns out, design is a widely interpreted concept! Answers such as 'fancy chairs with zero function' challenged us to think about and change this perception, and also helped to kick off an awesome day full of innovative new insights!

After helping them to understand more about what we do here at VanBerlo, it was time to take a deep dive into Design thinking. Our very own Design researcher Julie Hornix told them some invaluable information about Design thinking; which method we use, how to execute empathic research and which tools can help you in the process. The case that we worked on was an open, dynamic and complex assignment that Brainport is already familiar with: 'How can we attract (and keep) talent to the Brainport region?' Interviewing stakeholders such as teachers and recruiters, reframing the problem, ideating and creating new scenarios …All to find new and creative solutions. From Design thinking to Design doing!

Press play on the video at the top of the page. This video gives you an impression of the amount of work the students have done in just one day, and of course all the fun that we had together to match.

Young Brainport Class of Excellence

The Young Brainport Class of Excellence is a cooperation between different 'Brainport Schools'. This cooperation consists of the following schools: Heerbeeck College, Strabrecht Collega, Jan van Brabant College, Van Maerlant Lyceum, Frits Philips Lyceum-MAVO, Lorentz Casimir Lyceum, the Varendonck College and the Dr. Knippenberg College. These schools are all working hard on the student's development of 21st century skills. Want to know more? Click here!